On a typical day, Rev. Dana Bainbridge recalls Winston — a beloved member of the Urban Sanctuary spiritual community — waving or calling her name when he saw her.
He would sing, clap and sometimes play the tambourine, bringing much joy to others, Bainbridge told the San Jose City Council.
But last week, Winston had a rough mental health day, prompting the church to try to contact the Trusted Response Urgent Support Team (TRUST) — a team of health professionals and support advocates for nonviolent psychiatric emergencies — and then, when unsuccessful, to call 911 for a welfare check.
“What we got was a daunting number of police cars, nine uniforms standing over Winston, cuffing him,” Bainbridge said.
She thought back to lessons her father taught her about selecting the right tool for the job when fixing things — a lesson some San Jose residents can relate to, and why they are imploring the city to expand non-police alternatives for crises — because otherwise “you could do more damage if you use the wrong tool.”
For the past year, the city has explored options for increasing access to alternative response and co-response programs, recognizing that police are not always the best option for the calls emergency personnel receive.
San Jose faced scrutiny for how it responds to mental health incidents after an investigation by the Bay Area News Group, KQED and the California Reporting Project found that people suffering from mental health issues were involved in nearly three-quarters of the San Jose Police Department’s use-of-force incidents, including 80% of killings, over a decade.
A city-commissioned analysis of 911 calls found that 58.5% of reports were flagged as mental health-related without the need for a police report. The same study also found that nearly one-quarter of calls related to homeless people resulted in citations or arrests.
Meanwhile, alternative response programs like TRUST teams have demonstrated results, with a report from 2023 showing that TRUST teams were able to stabilize people 72% of the time without needing further assistance.
With alternative response programs showing a higher level of efficacy in peacefully resolving issues, San Jose, for the first time in its history, funded a dedicated TRUST line this year, pumping in $450,000 for the pilot program that could potentially run until June 2026.
“The reality is, over time, we have come to rely on our police officers to respond to an ever-growing and diverse list of call types, so many different needs in the community,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said. “That has put officers under immense stress (or) often puts them in situations they are not necessarily well-equipped to handle. When it comes particularly to just thinking about the volume of calls we get related to mental health issues and homelessness, we’ve got to find ways to make sure we’re sending the right response team, and it’s not always — as we discussed in past years — an officer with a badge and a gun.”
In December, the new San Jose-dedicated TRUST team responded to 23 incidents, according to Tom Westphal, a deputy director of the City Manager’s Office of Administration, Policy and Intergovernmental Relations.
But while San Jose has funded the program for this year, elected officials are concerned with the long-term sustainability of funding the service, which has traditionally fallen under the responsibility of the county.
In a memo passed at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Councilmembers Domingo Candelas, David Cohen and Peter Ortiz called on the city to explore funding the TRUST line by tapping into funds the city received from a settlement with manufacturers, distributors and retailers for their contributions to the opioid epidemic.
“I think it’s important to realize that we are exploring investments and alternatives to the traditional 911 response system,” Candelas said. “When someone is experiencing a mental health crisis or struggling with opioid addiction, the response needs to be thoughtful, compassionate, and ultimately informed, and for the longest time, we’ve unfairly overburdened our understaffed police force with dealing with these typical interactions.”
The City Council has also asked for greater outreach with members of the disability community, who have also called for the city to pursue more non-police alternatives.
“We need more training,” disability advocate Michele Mashburn said. “We need more awareness. We need more disability equity that follows in line with the work that has been done.”
San Jose also has to grapple with the problem of getting residents adequately connected to the services despite adding additional resources.
While 911 dispatchers could potentially divert calls, polling conducted by the city found that 75% of residents queried were unaware of the services offered through the 988 mental health hotline, which the city hopes to rectify.
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Supporters said the right response could lead to a completely different outcome for those in distress.
Rev. Matthew McHale recalled the mental health response team handling an unhoused resident in severe mental health distress “beautifully” after ushers at the First Unitarian Church of San Jose summoned them.
“If a police officer had been there, I’m not clear that it would have gone the same way because many people have negative associations with law enforcement,” McHale said.
